Colorado hospital system places unvaccinated kidney transplant patient on hold
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A patient awaiting a kidney transplant from a living donor was told by a Colorado hospital that the surgery would be on hold until she and the donor were vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus.
In a letter dated Sept. 28, the kidney transplant coordinator at the University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) told the patient she would be designated as inactive on the transplant wait list for being noncompliant for not getting vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus. The patient had 30 days to begin the vaccine series.
"If your decision is to refuse the COVID vaccination, you will be removed from the kidney transplant list. You will continue to accrue waiting time but you will not receive a kidney offer while listed inactive,” according to the letter.
UCHealth operates 12 hospitals from its headquarters in Aurora, Colorado.
The case received public attention after Colorado Rep. Tim Geitner, R-El Paso, publicized the letter. “UCHealth denies lifesaving treatment,” he said through his Twitter account, which included a copy of the letter to the patient.
Geitner recently sponsored legislation – Colorado House bill HB21-1172 – that would “prohibit a health-care facility from adopting policies or procedures that prohibit visitation of a patient or resident if the sole reason for the prohibition is to reduce the risk of transmission of a pandemic disease, but a health-care facility may impose specified requirements and limitations for visitors to reduce the risk of transmission of the pandemic disease.”
In an email to Healio Nephrology, Vice President of Communications at UCHealth Dan Weaver said studies show the mortality rate “ranges from about 20% to more than 30%” for transplant patients who contract COVID-19 compared with 1.6% of the general population.
“This shows the extreme risk that COVID-19 poses to transplant recipients after their surgeries … In almost all situations, transplant recipients and living donors at UCHealth are now required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in addition to meeting other health requirements and receiving additional vaccinations.
“Some U.S. transplant centers already have this requirement in place, and others are making this change in policy now,” Weaver wrote.
Weaver said the policy requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for organ transplants did not apply to other surgeries and medical conditions treated at the hospital chain “because those patients do not have such a high mortality rate.”
UCHealth announced in July that it would require vaccines for all staff and providers. By Oct. 1, everyone who worked in UCHealth locations were required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive an approved exemption.
The Transplant Center at University of Colorado Hospital is the only transplant program in the Rocky Mountain region that performs all solid organ transplants, according to the center’s website, and has performed more transplants than any other hospital in Colorado.
References:
HB21-1172. Hospital patient long-term care resident visit rights: Concerning visitation rights at health-care facilities. https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb21-1172. Accessed Oct. 7, 2021.
https://twitter.com/tgeitner/status/1445461608117927938. Published Oct. 5, 2021. Accessed Oct. 7, 2021.
UCHealth requires COVID-19 vaccines for all employees. https://www.uchealth.org/today/uchealth-requires-covid-19-vaccines-for-all-employees/. Published Aug. 16, 2021. Accessed Oct. 7, 2021.